Increasing tipping fees would hurt customers

In The Monroe Evening News, there have been two articles concerning waste disposal called "tipping fees." This was planned because recently there has been less garbage buried in the four Monroe County landfills.

These landfills have collected somewhere around 25 percent to 30 percent less waste than 2010, according to The Evening News. The whole state of Michigan collected about 24 percent less trash. This could be the result of decreased population and increased recycling. By the way, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality requires that used tires be recycled, not placed in landfills.

The Monroe County Solid Waste Management Planning Committee, which consists of 14 people, has asked for a fee of 60 cents a ton of waste, which would provide approximately $815,000 a year. The fee at present is 18 cents a ton and they propose a 30 percent increase to reach the desired 60 cents a ton.

Just for fun, let's say I had four stores. Two of the stores are doing okay and two stores are doing poorly. What should I do? Raise the price of the two stores doing well to support the two stores doing poorly? Or should I close the two stores doing poorly?

Maybe we should close the two landfills that aren't being used much then look at what increase might be needed.

Why should you be concerned? Because the people in the trash collection business will have to pass this cost on to us. Thankfully a Monroe County commissioner put a hold on this fee increase when he said, "We're here to serve the people of Monroe County and be good stewards of their money."

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